BIS to appoint private agency to curb misuse of ISI mark

Chandigarh: To tighten its noose around unscrupulous manufacturers engaged in misusing ISI mark, national standard body Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has decided to appoint private agencies for providing vital inputs so as to take tough action against the defaulters.

“We have decided to have a private agency or private detectives run by professionals including security agencies which will provide us critical information with regard to misuse of ISI mark by any type of industry,” BIS Deputy Director General, northern region, Bhupinder Singh said.

The main idea of roping in a private agency is to curb the practice of applying of ISI mark by manufacturers on their products without having valid licence for the same.

“The area of operation of an agency will be restricted to carry out market survey in the trade and industry and find out if there is any misuse of ISI mark by any industrialist. After verifying the information provided by that agency, BIS officials will conduct raid on these manufacturers as part of its measures to stop this practice,” he informed.

Although the misuse of ISI mark has declined in the northern region over past few years, he said. “But there are sme industries such as cables, bulbs, paint, plywood where the misuse of ISI mark is still prevalent,” he added.

During this financial year, BIS has already conducted 10 raids on several north-based manufacturers for using ISI mark on their products without having licence and seized huge quantity of material.

A spokesman of BIS informed that a team of BIS conducted raid on a Panchkula-based wire and cable manufacturing unit and found misuse of ISI Mark on wires and cables by manufacturing these products in the name of various manufacturers, without having a valid licence from the Bureau.

The firm was also marking ‘As per ISI´on the packing material as well. As per notification issued under Electrical Wires, Cables, Appliances and Protection Devices and Accessories (Quality Control) Order 2003, ISI marking on wires and cables is mandatory.

Similarly, a raid was conducted on a Ludhiana-based plywood maker and found misuse of the BIS standard mark on their product Plywood and Block Boards without having a valid licence from BIS.

According to the BIS Act, use of ISI Mark or any colourable imitation thereof without a valid licence is punishable with imprisonment up to one year or a fine up to Rs50,000 or both.

Almost 4,000 industrial units engaged in electrical, cement, sewing machine, cable, plywood and pipe fittings and operating in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and some parts of UP and Uttranchal are registered with BIS northern region.